Magnus, Robot Fighter

Based loosely on Tarzan, Magnus is a human in the year 4000, a time when humanity is entirely dependent on robots.

Raised by a robot who understands the dangers of this situation, Magnus was trained to become an expert fighter and martial artist who could break steel with his bare hands. He also acquired a special device that let him listen in on robot-to-robot communications.

He used these powers to stop rogue robots and robots turned towards evil by human villains.

Paul Kirk was a police consultant who decided to fight crime when his friend, police inspector Donovan, was murdered by a super-villain named The Buzzard. He wore red tights and a blue mask, and carried no weapons.

To confuse the matter further, Jack Kirby and Joe Simon created a new identity for Manhunter, as a former big-game hunter named Rick Nelson.

The character was changed back in subsequent issues, but when Paul Kirk was revived in the 1970s, the two characters were combined, and at first not intended to connect to either of the DC Golden Age characters.

Later, this was changed, and now all of the DC Manhunters are one and the same.

Man-Thing

Man-Thing began life as Ted Sallis, a scientist who was working on a new version of the Super-Soldier Serum.

Betrayed to the technological terrorist group AIM by his wife, he destroys his notes and injects himself with the serum, driving away in his car, only to crash into the swamp, where he is transformed into Man-Thing, a large creature made of plant matter with red eyes.

Man-Thing cannot speak, and has only vague memories of his previous life as Ted Sallis, but secretes acid when in the presence of violent emotions.

This happens to his wife, who is scarred by the acid.

Man-Thing has super-strength, and is an empathy, able to sense emotions directly. He can secrete acid when in the presence of violent emotions, and can also secrete a counter-agent to the acid.

Martian Manhunter

DC's Martain Manhunter is J'onn J'onnz, a genuine green-skinned Martian brought to earth accidentally by a scientist working on a teleportation machine.

The scientist cannot send him back, and so J'onn J'onnz uses one of his many powers to change his appearance to that of earthling John Jones, and sets himself up financially by extracting gold from seawater.

He decides to help the earthlings fight crime, which was by then unknown on Mars, as Martian Manhunter.

He later joined the JLA, and has had so many powers and abilities added to his character that it is almost impossible to list them.

Marvelman

Marvelman was created as an act of expediency in the face of Fawcett's decision to stop producing superhero comics.

He was created to replace Captain Marvel for the British market, and the same numbering was used to continue the series with the new character.

For the new character, young Micky Moran meets an astrophysicist who gives him powers pretty much identical to Captain Marvel's, activated when he says the word "Kimota," which is a phonetically-backwards version of "atomic."

There was a Marvelman family as well.

In the 1980s, Alan Moore revived the Marvelman as Miracleman (lawsuits form Marvel were responsible). He turned the character into a godlike being, and the series into the sort of intelligent and gritty realism that Moore brings to everything he does.

Metamorpho

Metamorpho started out as Rex Mason, a man hired to retrieve an artifact from an Egyptian pyramid.

Betrayed by his employer, he was knocked out ad exposed to radiation from the Orb of Ra, which transformed him into Metamorpho, capable of transforming himself into any element found in the human body, or any compound combining those elements.

The change also rendered him inhuman in appearance, because of which, Metamorpho regarded himself as a freak.

He is still active, although always troubled. He has died and been reborn several times since.

Miss America (Joan Dale)

This Miss America (no relation to the Timely heroine of the same name) was a young reporter named Joan Dale.

One night, she dreamed that the Statue of Liberty gave her the power to transmute elements and instructed her to use these powers to combat crime. Upon waking, she found that she actually had that super-power.

Joan threw together a red, white, and blue outfit and decided to call herself Miss America.

The character only lasted seven issues before disappearing. After DC acquired her, she was retconned into the Earth Two All-Star Squadron.

Miss America (Madeline Frank)

Timely Comics' Miss America was a mainstay in their superhero comics until 1948.

She began as young Madeline Joyce, niece of a scientist who had acquired super-powers when a device he had built was struck by lightning. Young Madeline was inquisitive, and tinkered with the machine herself, and when it was struck again by lightning, gave her the powers of super-strength and flight.

She fought crime from then on as Miss Liberty, dressed in a modest patriotic costume and wearing glasses, one of the only superheroes to do so.

Later, she married Robert Frank, aka The Whizzer, her teammate on the All-Winners Squad. She died in childbirth bearing their second child.

Mr. America (Americommando)

Tex Thompson was a blond-haired Texan who left his life as the son of an oil millionaire to pursue adventure. When he saw some Nazis sink an American ship, he decided to become a mystery man and fight for justice.

He dyed his hair black, put on a red, white, and blue outfit, and carried a bullwhip.

Mr. America had no superpowers, but for a time had a flying carpet which he also wore as a cape.

Later, in the 1980s, Roy Thomas brought him back as Americommando to join the All-Star Squadron.

Mr. Miracle

Scott Free was the son of Highfather of New Genesis, who was traded to Apokolips where he became Darkseid's adopted son in exchange for Darkseid's son Orion.

He was raised in Granny Goodness' orphanage on Apokolips, but was helped to escape by Big Barda (whom he would later marry) and then traveled to earth, where he became the escape artist Mister Miracle.

Scott possesses genius-level intelligence, has superhuman strength, speed, and endurance, understands the anti-life equation, and can control the Alpha Effect.

He spent some of his later years living in the suburbs with Barda, in an attempt at living a quiet life. He is also functionally immortal.

Mr. Terrific

With a green, yellow, and red costume bearing the legend "Fair Play" on his chest, Mister Terrific was the costumed alter-ego of Terry Sloane, a millionaire renaissance man with a photographic memory, martial arts mastery, and athletic skills par excellence.

A prodigy, Sloane had graduated from college at age 13, and soon after made his first million. Bored and suicidal by the time he reached adulthood, he was snapped out of his depression by an opportunity to save someone's life. Doing so made him feel good, and he decided to become Mister Terrific to fight evil and combat juvenile delinquency.

Monica Rambeau

Monica Rambeau became a new Captain Marvel, although she was unrelated to Mar-Vell. Later, she would be known as Photon, Pulsar, and Spectrum.

Monica was working in the New Orleans harbor patrol when she was blasted by "extra-dimensional energy," and gained the ability to transform her body into any type of energy on the electromagnetic spectrum.

While in her energy form, she can travel at the speed of light as well as through the vacuum of space. She can also generate, absorb, or control any form of energy.

After many name changes, Monica is still around, using her super-powers for good.

Monsieur Stigmonus

While Hal Jordan was coming to terms with his role as the Spirit of Vengeance, he begins to question whether vengeance is really necessary, and began considering the role of the Spirit of Redemption instead.

From nowhere, Monsieur Stigmonus shows up and begins tormenting Hal, attempting to cast doubt upon Hal's new direction.

Later, Hal realized that Stigmonus was a reflection of pain, misery, doubt, despair, and hopelessness, and that the only way to truly fight him was with hope, love, and forgiveness.

Moon Knight

Moon Knight made his first appearance battling Jack Russell, the werewolf by night, but his origin would be told later.

Moon Knight is Marc Spector, son of a Rabbi who traveled the world as a mercenary, training along the way in boxing and savate.

While in Egypt, he was betrayed by Raoul Bushman, the gangster he was then working for, and left to die in front of a statue of the Egyptian moon goddess, Khonshu.

Spector's heart stops, and he has a vision in which Khonshu promises to spare his life if he becomes her champion on earth.

He agrees, and rises, wrapping himself in the silver shroud he found on the altar. He finds and vanquishes Bushman, and returns to America with his sidekick, Frenchie, to begin a career as Moon Knight, with a silver costume based on the shroud of Khonshu.

Moon Knight is an expert in hand-to-hand combat, a gifted gymnast, a top-notch athlete, an experienced aviator, and a deadly marksman. Moon Knight remains active today.